Sunday, March 21, 2004
With A Little Understanding... Neighbours and Social Values
Originally published in Australian Screen Education 34, Autumn 2004.
Love it or hate it, Neighbours is part of Australian culture. Eighteen years, nearly 4500 episodes, and it is still going strong. It is exported all over the world (it screens at least twice a day in England) and it is still rating solidly at home. In an industry famed for its soaps, Neighbours is one of the best, and an Australian cultural icon. Because of its unique position on the Australian cultural landscape, the values that Neighbours holds and represents can reveal much about the values we as Australians see as important.
WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FAMILY
‘Families are the heart and soul of Neighbours,’ says Riccardo Pellizzeri, Executive Producer of Drama at Grundy Television, and the man ultimately responsible for the tone of the stories that appear across Australia every weeknight. Reg Watson’s original concept for Neighbours was a group of families living in a cul-de-sac, and Pellizzeri has worked hard to ensure that the show stays true to this intention. Neighbours’ attitude to family is a positive one: put simply, you can achieve almost anything with the support of your family, and conversely, you can do almost anything and your family will still forgive you.
A recent storyline revolved around Jack Scully’s preparation for his Year 12 exams. Jack is a little older than a standard year 12 student, having spent some time in the UK struggling to break into the top levels of English soccer. Having presumably dedicated much of his school life to soccer training, Jack has always found study difficult, and the story dramatized the crisis of confidence that he underwent in the lead up to his exams. Jack felt that he was not smart enough even to bother sitting; he was going to fail anyway, he argued to his parents, Lyn and Joe, so what’s the point.
His crisis was no doubt a familiar one for students of all ages and demonstrated that Neighbours is still aware of the problems faced by school-aged teenagers. But more significant was the way in which the story was resolved. The Scully parents are no academics themselves – Joe is a builder and Lyn a hairdresser – but as a family they managed to scrape together enough to restore Jack’s confidence.
Joe drew on his practical experience to help Jack with his maths, and Lyn dug out her school English notes. Though still not fully confident, Jack went into his exams – after resisting the temptation to buy a stolen exam paper – and managed to pass. In the end, Jack, with the love and support of his family, achieved more than he could alone.
While on the surface this may appear to be a fairly idealized view of family – the dramatic representation of John Howard’s 50s-esque vision – Neighbours is by no means as conservative in its values. In fact, the show represents family as a fairly fluid concept, created as much by love and support as it is by blood. Pellizzeri suggests that families in Neighbours can be ‘blended, nuclear or whatever combination you want to go for,’ and this is no better represented than by the boys of Number Thirty.
Number Thirty, or ‘The House of Trouser’ as its residents have dubbed it, has become a very important element in the Ramsay Street makeup. Currently inhabited by Jarrod ‘Toadfish’ Rebecchi, Irish expat Connor O’Neill and Stuart Parker, Number Thirty is the home for those characters whose family does not live on the street, yet the camaraderie of its residents still reflects a definite family dynamic.
Toadie, Connor and Stuart are best friends, and their relationship, strengthened by their shared experience, is closer to brothers than housemates. They bicker about cooking and cleaning, and their merciless teasing of each other belies a very real affection.
In one of the most gloriously soap operatic stories of the past year, Toadie’s wife Dione was killed on their wedding day when Toadie lost control of the car as he drove them from their reception. As Toadie grieved, it was Stuart and Connor, along with Toadie’s family, who provided the lion’s share of support. Stuart even, in an extraordinary act of friendship, bore Toadie’s rage without flinching when Toadie blamed him (the mechanic) for Dee’s death, suggesting that if Stuart had have done his job properly, Dee would still be alive. Toadie was on the brink of bringing legal action against Stuart when he came to his senses. Stuart, of course, forgave him, and Toadie recently returned the favour when, after a considerable period of estrangement, he welcomed Stuart back into the House of Trouser, forgiving him for his misdeeds under the spell of a charismatic cult leader.
But though Neighbours reflects the view that family is the single most important thing in a person’s life, this ideal does not always manifest itself in a positive way. Isabelle Hoyland loves her family: older brother Max and his two children Boyd and Summer. But when she realises Stephanie Scully, Max’s girlfriend, is beginning to replace her as the number one girl in Boyd’s and Summer’s lives, she does her best to sabotage their relationship with veiled barbs at Steph, and gentle prods to Max that Steph may not be the woman for him. Her motive, to preserve her family, is good. Her actions are not.
It demonstrates that Neighbours understands that the representation of positive values still leaves room for the entire spectrum of human behaviour, and ensures that the show does not cross the line between realistic human behaviour and didactism. Similarly, sex outside marriage is fine, as long as it is for the right reasons. Toadie and Dee were quite obviously sexually active within a loving, supportive relationship, and they were blissfully happy.
Jack and Isabelle, however, enjoyed their naughty sexual affair while it lasted, but in the end it failed to satisfy either of them on an emotional level, and it ended badly. When it comes to family, Neighbours knows exactly what is important, even if its characters don’t.
A RAMSAY STREET EDUCATION
Being a soap suburb, Erinsborough’s residents are frequently pregnant, or sick, or injured. Neighbours takes its educational responsibility to thousands of viewers very, very seriously:
we should be ethical program makers and tell our stories truthfully and conscientiously ... I think a show like Neighbours can entertain, stimulate, educate, provoke and touch an audience, all at the same time. It is up to us as storytellers to create the situations that will achieve this.’
Rather than seeking the cheap drama that can come from medical emergencies or convenient illness, the show’s storyliners go to great lengths to ensure that health issues are explored thoroughly and realistically, and that relevant information is not ignored. With Stephanie’s recent case of breast cancer, this meant a series of meetings with Dr Karl Kennedy, her GP, and her oncologist.
They explained in detail her condition, the recommended treatment, and its effects. There were scenes showing Steph receiving chemotherapy, as well moments that dealt with relevant side-effects such as lethargy, physical pain and hair loss. Steph’s possible infertility and the option of ovarian biopsy (or ‘freezing eggs’) were also covered.
But Neighbours went beyond merely portraying the medical effects of cancer, and addressed the non-medical issues that that can arise. Steph lost confidence in her body image, and rather than dressing in her usual tight-fitting tops, she preferred baggy jumpers.
Flowing on from this, she was reluctant to be physically intimate with Max, and it was a long process before she was even ready to share his bed again. Through Steph, Neighbours demonstrated that cancer is an illness that affects not only the victim, but everyone around them, and in many different ways – an important piece of information.
Recently, Lyn Scully gave birth to her fifth child, Oscar, and suffered a fairly serious case of post-natal depression. For Lyn, who defines herself as a mother first and foremost, this was an enormously difficult thing to come to terms with, and so she kept the fact that she was unable to bond with Oscar a secret. Lyn saw her PND as a failure on her part to be a good mother, a common reaction when new mothers suffer depression.
When it was finally revealed, by Dr Kennedy, that Lyn had PND, Lyn was still reluctant to tell anyone about it. She knew that she had an illness, but was still influenced by the public perception of depression as a psychological problem rather than a physical condition. She was embarrassed to discuss her PND with anyone, even her closest friends.
Neighbours demonstrated that it was aware of public perceptions of depression, and went to great lengths to dispel them in its storytelling process. When Lyn asked her husband Joe to keep her depression secret, he refused. He compared her PND to the flu: an illness. He assured her that there was nothing wrong with her as a mother, that there was nothing to be ashamed of, and that with medication and time, she would recover fully and be able to bond with baby Oscar.
Once Lyn understood this, she was able to accept the support of her family and friends and, of course, made a full recovery. And in the course of her journey there was a great deal of important information passed on to viewers. Lyn’s and Steph’s stories demonstrate to us that Neighbours is fully aware of its responsibilities to the public, and that it takes them very seriously indeed.
AUSTRALIA'S NOT REALLY LIKE THAT
It is surely unacceptable (and to a larger extent offensive) to present a stereotypical gay character, without ever referring to him being gay. While it would hardly come as a shock to the audience to hear Gino revealing his sexual orientation to others, I would like to see Neighbours at least having the courage to talk about the subject.
Barry, commenting on one of the largest and best-respected Neighbours fan sites, The Perfect Blend, expresses a point of view that is not uncommon among Neighbours fans. If Neighbours is a barometer-of-sorts of Australian values, when is it time for us to be able to see an openly and actively homosexual character in prime time? And why is everyone in Erinsborough white middle-class?
Tough questions. Neighbours does have a gay character: Gino, the local hairdresser who has serial guest status on the show. Luke Devenish, Script Producer on Neighbours, believes that Gino is demonstrative of a tolerant, inclusive approach:
Our approach with Gino is that his sexuality, per se, is not an “issue” at all – which is exactly how it should be in accepting, friendly Erinsborough. The fact that Gino is gay is celebrated for both humour and pathos on the show, without ever actually being brought into the open and tied to a rainbow flag. We much prefer it that way.
Devenish’s wariness of the ‘rainbow flag’ reveals a concern shared by the show’s creators and fans alike: issue-based storytelling. Alan Shade runs Erinsborough.com, Neighbours’ number one fan site, and is adamant that ‘soaps that put issues over entertainment aren’t much fun to watch,’ and Devenish, looking back over the history of the show, agrees with him: ‘often the “issue” gets in the way of simply telling a good story.’
He has a point. They are, in the end, making a soap opera, and though Neighbours takes its social responsibilities seriously it is ultimately beholden to the God of entertainment. Viewers hate few things as much as being preached to, and Neighbours ensures that the values it holds are not shoved down viewers’ throats.
But is it time that a G-Rated program can openly describe a character as gay? Alan Shade thinks it is: ‘there’s only so much “he bats for the other team” and “sings from a different hymnsheet” that you can take. Is it really that bad to just say it?’ Probably not.
Mark Raffety, who played the conniving Dr Darcy Tyler on the show, claims he put it to the producers that Darcy would have a gay kiss, ‘not for Darcy to be gay but for him to be confused.’ His request was rejected; it is unlikely even today that G-Rated television is ready for ‘groundbreaking television’ such as this.
But it seems from the opinions of the show’s fans that the euphemistic style of addressing Gino’s homosexuality is a little out of date; more reminiscent of 70s shows such as Number 96 and Are You Being Served? than a contemporary soap. At the moment, though, Neighbours’ approach is a little confused: it’s okay to be gay, we just don’t talk about it directly. It is certainly possible to redress this without resorting to ‘issue’ television.
‘To an extent, I think Neighbours has been guilty of painting a pretty straight, white, middle-class view of Australia over the years.’ A look back at the parade of Ramsay Street residents over the years reveals Alan Shade’s criticism as accurate: the presence of other ethnic groups and the telling of their stories is almost non-existent.
There was, of course, the Alessi family, of Italian descent, as well as the failed Lim family experiment (they were on the street for less than a year, and left shortly after Julie Martin accused them of kidnapping and eating her dog). But up until the arrival of the Bishop family – David (Harold’s son), his Serbian wife Liljana and daughter Serena – there had been a drought of other cultures in Ramsay Street.
Pellizzeri is more than aware of this criticism, and believes it is justified: ‘we have a more multicultural society than was represented in the show.’ For this reason, he is very proud of the inclusion of David, Liljana and Serena, because they are real characters whose stories are drawn from the experience of Serbian people in Australia, and who are not tokenistic gestures towards multiculturalism.
Liljana is a firebrand; accustomed to yet still frustrated by what she sees as David’s Anglo restraint. She prefers to say exactly what is on her mind rather than bottling things up for the sake of manners. Though this is not a universal Serbain trait, it is certainly indicative of different cultural approaches to conflict. In contrast to Liljana, who is fiercely proud of her Serbian heritage and its traditions, is Serena, a teenager who is mortally embarrassed by it, and constantly seeks to distance herself from anything Serbian.
What is important about the Bishops is that their experiences are rooted in reality; they are not a cobbling together of assorted European traditions, they are very real stories of multiculturalism in Australia. Again, these stories are borne from the experience and knowledge of the show’s storyliners. Pellizzeri explains Neighbours’ determination to do these stories justice:
You do need multicultural storytellers in the team an as that occurs you will find that multicultural stories will start to appear. You don’t want to create situations out of ignorance, so you need the right expertise to be in the story team.
Though this approach may mean that stories take a little longer to germinate, it ensures that those that are presented are based in reality, as well as being entertaining.
‘BUT WHO WANTS REALITY WHEN YOU'RE WATCHING SOAPS?’
Alan Shade is right. Soaps are about escapism, about drama, and, at the best of times, about pushing the boundaries of a much-maligned genre. Thus the Susan Kennedy amnesia story. It was backed by a plausible medical explanation, but was more about revisiting a classic soap story – amnesia – and giving it Neighbours’ unique twist. In a sense, it was about announcing to the world that Neighbours is soap and proud of it.
We must be careful not to demand something that is beyond a program’s capabilities. Neighbours takes its responsibilities to its viewers seriously, but at the same time knows exactly why they are watching, so is careful never to prioritise issues, or causes, or art above entertainment. That is why Neighbours stories return to those constants in all our lives: families, friends, sickness and health. Its values are wholesome, but not saccharine; its stories positive, but never didactic. Put simply,
the good guy gets the girl in the end, the kind people succeed, the bad people aren’t all bad and if they are, they get what they deserve, but we still forgive them, and you can recover from anything as long as you have the support of your family and friends.
It may seem twee, but a Neighbours attitude is probably not the worst thing in the world to aim for.